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Star Wars Black (Rogue One): K-2SO by Hasbro

DC fans, don’t hate me, but DC Friday is being bumped this week in favor of The Star Warses. I’m working my way through the first four Rogue One figures in the Star Wars Black 6-inch series and here comes the one that I intentionally saved for last, because I thought he was going to be the coolest of the bunch… and I was right! It’s the reprogrammed Imperial Security Droid, K-2SO!

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging, but heeeey, did you see the new Rogue One trailer? I’ll be honest, I’ve been excited about this movie since that first teaser, but each trailer is getting me more excited. It feels like we’re going to get to see a lot more of the Star Wars Universe in this one, along with some genuinely cool new characters. And one of them happens to be this deadpan warrior droid, HK-47… Whooops, I mean K-2SO!

Let me start out by saying how much I love this droid’s design. What’s the first thing I think of when I see him? He’s wearing General Veers’ chest armor! Yeah that piece is very evocative of the AT-AT Commander uniform. It’s kind of a random design to borrow from, but it works because one look and I know that this is an Imperial droid. Well, that and the familiar “O II” Stormtrooper pattern on his backpack… and maybe those Imperial insignia printed on his shoulders give it away too. The other thing I love about this design is that it’s a robot that looks like a robot and not a guy in a robot suit. Despite having a really powerful looking upper body, the rest of K-2SO is comprised of spindly limbs, which reinforces that idea that he’s a droid and not a guy in a costume. It’s kind of like 2-1B in The Empire Strikes Back. He had the transparent mid-section and the super thin arms and it just looks so convincing. Sure, that was an animatronic puppet and this is CG, but the end result was the same. But enough rambling. How does the figure pull off this great design?

Pretty damn well! There are some lovely sculpted details on this guy and while the deco is mostly a dark gray, some paint flourishes include the orange rings around his shoulder and hip sockets and the a little silver, red, and blue here and there. There’s also a lot of weathering on K-2SO’s chassis, from splotches of silver where the paint has worn off to just general abrasions. Even the Imperial insignia on his shoulders look like they’re partially scraped off. The eyes are painted bright white to simulate illumination, which looks pretty good. I wonder how light piping might have worked here, but that would have left a transparent plug in the back of his head, so maybe it wouldn’t have been a good idea.

What’s really amazing about this figure is how solid it is and how much articulation is here. The shoulders and wrists are rotating hinges, and the elbows are hinged and have swivels above and below the hinge! The legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the ankles, and the knees mirror the elbows with hinges and swivels above and below. There’s a ball joint in the torso and the neck is ball jointed at the top and bottom to give him some pretty expressive head movements. I really dig how the pins in his elbows, knees, and ankles are clear plastic.

K-2SO doesn’t come with any accessories, but his claws are capable of holding a gun and Captain Andor just happens to have an extra!

As I said going into this review, I suspected K-2SO was going to be a favorite and he certainly is that. He’s both a great new design for the Star Wars Universe and a great action figure too! And overall, I’d say that this entire first assortment from Rogue One has been pretty solid. Yes, I had some issues with the lack of likeness in Jyn and Cassian’s head sculpts, but everything else about these figures has been great. You’ll notice that I passed for now on the unmasked Kylo Ren and the re-issue of Rey that shipped with this assortment. I still may pick those up at some point down the road, but these four were my priorities. And with the 6-inch line covered, I’ll be moving into the 3 3/4-inch figures next week, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday. Meanwhile, I’ve got one more bit of Star Wars content to serve up tomorrow.

3 comments on “Star Wars Black (Rogue One): K-2SO by Hasbro”

Dude, you nailed everything I love about this fig. But I DID NOT expect to like him much at all. Memories of IG-88’s flimsy limbs. But this guy is perfect, the clear plastic is a real treat. I am a sucker for clear anything in a figure.

Thanks! Yeah, IG-88 is that other great robot design from Star Wars that blew me away. No way they had a dude in there! Of course him and 2-1B barely moved, but that didn’t factor into my little kid mind.